One of Nigeria’s oldest airlines, Aero Contractors, has announced an indefinite suspension of all passenger flight operations.
The company, in a statement on Monday, said the decision to suspend passenger flights was taken due to the fact that most of its aircraft are currently undergoing maintenance, resulting in an inability to offer a seamless and efficient service to customers.
It said the suspension expected to take effect from Wednesday, July 20, was temporary but did not state the resumption date.
There have been reports of the planned shutdown of services by the airline since May. The reports had alleged that the airline was cash-strapped and may soon go out of business but the management denied the reports.
The airline also blamed the “impact of the challenging operating environment” on its daily operations.
It lamented that the past few months have been very challenging for the aviation industry.
It listed the issues hampering airline operations in Nigeria to include high cost of maintenance, skyrocketing fuel prices, inflation, and foreign exchange (FX) scarcity resulting in high FX rates.
The airline, however, said it was working to bring the aircraft back to service in the next few weeks, in order to continue to offer passengers the safe, efficient, and reliable services.
It pointed out the the current situation did not in any way affect the maintenance activities of the Approved Maintenance Organisation (AMO) otherwise known as AeroMRO, the Approved Training Organisation (ATO) also known as Aero Training School, the Helicopter and Charter Services operations,even as it apologised to its customers for the inconvenience.
